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Hastings Public Library

Digital Services Update - July 2023

Digital Services Update - July 2023

Change in Available Library Services  - July 2023

To: All Hastings Public Library Patrons

Businesses and individuals alike are currently faced with financial challenges out of our control. Whether at the gas pump, grocery store or when paying utility bills, we have all seen prices rise over the last year, forcing us to adjust our spending to manage expenses.

The Library is no different, and as we planned the budget for our next fiscal year beginning July 1, 2023, we were faced with some difficult decisions. Our revenue remains relatively steady year over year, with occasional decreases due to reductions in property tax values. Expenses unfortunately continue to rise.

To provide the best services possible, with the most impact to our patrons, we sometimes have to remove programs and services that become too expensive and/or are underutilized. To that end, we have made the difficult decision to drop two services effective July 1, 2023: 

  • Ancestry.com Library Edition: Usage by patrons in the library has averaged fewer than 30 searches per month since remote access was removed by the vendor in December 2021. Given the annual cost of $1,850, we cannot justify the expense against the extremely low usage.
    • Other genealogy research options still exist, including MyHeritage Library Edition, which is provided to us at no cost through the Library of Michigan. It is also available remotely on MeL.org.
  • Hoopla: Hoopla has been over-budget since 2020. The library pays for every download at an average of $2.00 per item. This is five times more than we pay per download with Libby. Limiting downloads based on available budget only allows 6-8 downloads per day while still costing the library $5,100 per year. With the small number of available daily downloads and small user base compared to Libby, we simply cannot afford to keep spending this amount of money.
    • Libby is available for eBook, audiobook and magazine downloads. If you are not signed up to borrow from for all seven possible collections, ask staff how or see information on the Digital Collection page.

 We did not come to these decisions easily. In order to manage our rising expenses and maintain other critical services, we ultimately decided to trim these expensive and less used services. We always strive to add services vs. cutting them, but hope you understand our position. If our financial situation changes in the future, we will consider reinstating these services or equivalents.

If you have any questions or wish to discuss these changes, please do not hesitate to contact us at the library in person, via phone, or by email.

Thank you, 

Peggy Hemerling
Library Director

Filed under: digital
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Hastings Public Library
227 E. State St., Hastings, MI 49058

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Phone: 269-945-4263
Fax: 269-948-3874

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